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State $$$ headed to Tiskilwa Library

TISKILWA – A state grant will allow the Tiskilwa Public Library to build an addition to the building.
Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White recently informed Tiskilwa Public Library officials that the library is entitled to receive a Fiscal Year 2013 Illinois Public Construction Grant. White said the grant’s maximum award is $504,241.40.
“We’re excited because the grant will make it possible for us to build an addition to the library and make it accessible for the whole community,” said Nancy Johnston, secretary of the library board. “The plan also includes preserving and renovating the current building as a community center.”
The grant requires the library to match the grant with an additional $465,453.60. The library will meet the grant from combination of savings, donations and a loan from a local bank.
Tiskilwa area residents are invited to review the building plans and hear about the project at an open house to be held at the library at 6:30 p.m. May 21.
“Donations from Friends of the Library to the building fund total $34,500 to date, an important part of making this project possible,” said Rich Foss, board president. “We are also looking for additional donations.
“In 1908, Tiskilwa and its leaders had the foresight to build the current library,” Foss added. The library is working with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency to preserve the current building while expanding through an addition.
“Countless children and adults have walked through those doors over the last 105 years and into the wonderful world of books, DVDs, audio books, computers and educational programs,” Foss said. “We want to build on that tradition.”
In developing the plans, the library board worked with a building committee of Tiskilwa contractors and with architect Wayne Nolan of ATSE Consultants LLC, Peoria, and Fred Schlipf, library consultant. The project is currently being put out for bid.
“We want to create a library that will serve Tiskilwa for the next 100 years,” said trustee Eileen Behrens.
In November 2010, Tiskilwa voters voted 393 to 216 against a $1.81 million referendum which would have allowed the library board to either renovate the current Tiskilwa Public Library or to erect a new building on an adjacent vacant lot where two buildings were demolished.
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